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The
Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education’s mission is
to recommend policies, strategies and programs that address
gender-based barriers and encourage equal participation of
students and workers in education, training, and
employment. The Gender Parity Task Force was first
established by the SETC in 1993, and the Council was
permanently established through legislation in 1999 (P.L.
1999, c.223).
The Council is the only one of its kind in the nation and
brings together representatives from business, education,
and government to address barriers to full and
gender-equitable participation in the workforce. The SETC
partners with the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers
University to provide operational support to carry out
program initiatives and day-to-day operations of the
Council.
The Council is legislated to consist of 17 members: six
members are appointed by the SETC and six members are
appointed by the Division on Women, with not more than half
of these members being of the same political party. In
addition, five members serve ex-officio and are appointed by
the Commissioners of Community Affairs, Education, Human
Services, Labor and Workforce Development and the Executive
Director of the Commission on Higher Education. Dianne
Mills McKay is Chair of the Council.
Key
Action Items
On November 7th, 2009, the
Council, with funding from the U.S. Department of Labor’s
(US-DOL) Women’s Bureau, and in partnership with the Center
for Women and Work, held a regional forum developed
specifically to address resource and information needs for
women. The forum, entitled Economic Recovery: What Women
Need to Know, brought together representatives from
local, state, and national government to provide resources
and referral, primarily to residents of Monmouth County.
Over 60 women and 16 speakers and resource providers
committed a Saturday morning to placing specific information
in the hands of women and to participating in an interactive
and dynamic question-and-answer session. Follow-up occurred
both via group email and on an individual basis; in the
weeks following the event, several speakers reported
providing direct support to the women in attendance. Plans
are underway to replicate the forum in several other New
Jersey regions.
In the spring of 2009, the
Council presented findings from a study contracted to the
Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, on women in
the New Jersey legal profession, both the climate in which
they work and keys for their success. The report,
entitled Legal Talent at the Crossroads, continues to
receive local, state, and national attention. Based on this
full report, the SETC prepared a companion piece and
practitioners’ guide that was widely distributed to law
firms, highlighting key actions firms could take in
implementing the best practices described in the full
report. The Council plans to use findings from this
research as a framework for examining workplace practices in
other industry sectors.
In each of
the past three years, the Council has brought together a
diverse group of stakeholders to share perspectives and
develop comprehensive and integrated recommendations for
addressing gender issues in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and
employment. The Council focused its 3rd
annual conference in the spring of 2009, on emerging
issues for women in transitioning their skills into
employment in the emerging green workforce. Findings and
recommendations from the Summit are summarized in a series
of reports entitled, Women in New Jersey’s Science and
Technology Workforce Summit. Planning for
the fourth conference, scheduled for May 2010, is already
underway.
In
addition to the work described above, the Council will
address the following program and policy issues in 2010:
Apply
a “gender lens” to the evaluation and assessment of federal,
state, and locally funded workforce services:
In keeping with its decade-long role as an evaluator of the
role of gender in employment and education, the Council is
tracking data on current workforce needs and opportunities
in New Jersey with a particular focus on industries
identified for growth.
Monitor
and address the growth of “green” industries, as well as
green jobs within existing industries.
Of
particular interest to the Council are efforts to ensure
that opportunities and benefits associated with the emerging
green energy economy are received equitably by both women
and men.
Use
lessons from the health care field to inform policy
recommendations with both industry-specific and broader
workforce implications:
The well-documented under-representation of men in the
nursing and health care support professions and
under-representation of women as physicians has made health
care a key workforce sector for Council consideration. The
Council identified growth areas in health care including
electronic medical records systems, promotion of comparative
effectiveness research, and interest in horizontal
integration of services. It anticipates and plans to track
both opportunities and concerns in this arena, as well as
strategies for ensuring that accessible career “ladders and
lattices” to quality jobs exist.
Assist
in the identification and examination of successful supports
for offender reentry, particularly for a growing population
of women on parole and probation:
The Council is working to make permanent a pilot program
that has successfully reduced recidivism among New Jersey
women on probation or parole, by providing comprehensive and
integrated reentry services at low cost.
Partner
with veterans’ groups to address issues of concern to women
veterans:
New Jersey
is home to seven active military installations, and to a
newly formed Commission on Women Veterans within the
Division on Women of the New Jersey Department of Community
Affairs. The Council will work with veterans’ groups at
local, state, and federal levels to identify issues of
concern to women veterans, particularly around employment
and education needs.
Support
efforts to expose men and women to non-traditional career
information, guidance, and practical experience at early
ages:
Funded by the New Jersey Department of Education, the
Nontraditional Career Resource Center (NCRC) is often
described as the “practice arm” of the Council. The goal of
NCRC is to prepare women and men for careers in high-demand
fields and to address gender gaps in the educational
pipeline for such careers.
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